A Week of Daily Posts

Drizzle on a Sunday morning in Kingston. I’ve complained about how bad the weather has been this summer, but this officially shows me that fall might be starting up earlier than usual too. Did resemble weather in Newfoundland so I liked it better than rain.

Still awaiting word on Dawg FM. CRTC said on their website that the decision would come out last week. Guess what? Didn’t happen. Friday came and went and nothing. So maybe it will come out after the weekend. But at this point, your guess is as good as mine.

As for the title, doing a new blog post every day this week. Have a text version of the interview with Toni Marie Wiseman I did recently. It’s too long for one post so I’ll divide it up over the week.

It is also a week where she’s on vacation so you can’t see her on NTV this week. Out of all places for her to visit, it isn’t one I would have guessed. Costa Rica. I don’t even want to guess how long that day of flying must’ve been.

Onto the interview. Not a word for word transcript since I edited to make it easier to read. Reading an interview is much different than listening to one.

Today it’s how Toni Marie got into broadcasting and talking about her radio career before she started in television.

ROB: Welcome to the show, Toni.

TONI: Thank you very much for having me Rob.

ROB: I know myself as an Army Brat, I moved around a lot. And you moved around a lot on the east coast.

TONI: I did, yes.

ROB: So, how was growing up in different towns over the years?

TONI: You may feel the same way, when I was growing up I found it quite difficult. Being in a place for two years and then moving. Having to leave friends behind make new friends, and start all over.

But now especially because of the work that I do with NTV I find that having moved around, really allowed me to feel connected with each part of the province.

When I have to talk about a particular event that’s happening in Corner Brook I can relate to that. Because I lived in towns like Corner Brook, Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor.

While it was difficult when I was younger, it was really a blessing. It’s allowed me to find out much more about the province. Many people don’t have the luxury of having lived all over the place. So, it’s a good thing.

ROB: I got used to it pretty quickly. By the time I was five I was in three or four towns.

TONI: The only sad thing is when people that I know, some of them have friends that they’ve had since they were three or four.

And I don’t. That’s what I think I’ve missed out on. I don’t really have any friends that I’ve had for years and years. But I have lots of great friends now, so, I’m none the worse from my ordeal, I suppose.

ROB: I know you went to Memorial for one year and then went to journalism school.

TONI: I did. And that was my father’s idea. I was a very shy girl. I was always very young for my age. Probably five years younger emotionally than my peers were. When I went to university [Acadia] first I got sick. So, I had to move home.

Then I went to MUN [Memorial University]. You may have found this too, because I moved around so much, my parents, especially my mom were kind of my best friends. Moving away from them for the first time I found quite difficult.

My first year at Memorial University I didn’t do as well as I should have. Or I could have. And a lot of it was home sickness.

My father said, “Well, how about you take a year off and take this course? It’s a broadcasting course. This is kind of what you want to do. Take the year do the course. And if you really enjoy it then maybe you’ll be more motivated.”

I thought, that’s fair, so to my dad who’s been paying for my education. So that’s what I did.

Began in September of ’86. By December, we were shipped off to various parts of the province to do some on the job training. I was sent to Corner Brook, where my brother lived at the time. And I did so well there that they hired me.

I realized that this was something that I really wanted to do. I was quite lucky.

I started working full time at CFCB in Corner Brook just a few short months after I started the program. Then I made a transfer to Grand Falls Windsor to a VOCM affiliate station. After that I went to the head station 590 VOCM in St. Johns.

Basically I was working with another affiliate station with VOCM called VOFM as the morning traffic person. You drive around and tell people if there are slowdowns or if this road is closed.

I had to be at work for four in the morning which I found quite difficult. It’s one of those jobs that can tire, can wear on a person after a while. It was a great entry level job, but it’s not the most creative job you can do in broadcasting.

I was getting a little bored, when the opportunity arose that I could apply for a job at NTV and I did.